This page will contain discussion groups about New York Jets, as they become available.New York Jets |
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| Conference | AFC |
| Division | East |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Home Field | Giants Stadium |
| City | East Rutherford, New Jersey |
| Colors | Green and white |
| Head Coach | Herman Edwards |
| All-Time Record (W-L-T) (At Start of 2005 Season) |
312-374-8 |
The New York Jets are a National Football League team that plays its home games in East Rutherford, New Jersey, but is based on Long Island.
The NYSCC West Side Stadium project in NYC, still under consideration, would expected to be the home of the Jets by 2010 if built. It would also be the site of Super Bowl XLIV. The team is also being courted by its current landlord, the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority (NJSEA), to remain in the Meadowlands as part of plans to construct a new Giants Stadium.
The Jets began as the Titans of New York, a charter member of the American Football League in 1960. When a group including Sonny Werblin bought the team from Harry Wismer in 1963, the team was re-named the New York Jets.
In 1965, the Jets signed Alabama quarterback Joe Namath after the NFL passed on Namath in the amateur draft. Under Namath's guidance, the Jets rose to the top of the AFL and in 1969 represented that league in the Super Bowl. They were pitted against the "best team in the NFL", the Baltimore Colts. At the time, the AFL was considered to be inferior to the NFL and most people considered the Jets to be heavy underdogs. In the week leading up to Super Bowl III, Namath famously "guaranteed" a victory and the Jets went on to complete one of the greatest upsets in football history by defeating the Colts 16-7. This victory showed that the AFL was capable of competing with the NFL. The Jets' first game in the NFL was also the first-ever Monday Night Football game, a 31-21 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
The Jets did not live up to expectations after the AFL and NFL merged in 1970. In their first season after the merger, Joe Namath broke his wrist in October and had to sit out the rest of the year, with the Jets finishing 4-10. Another injury to Namath before the 1971 season submarined the Jets that year as well, with Bob Davis and Al Woodall leading the team to a 6-8 record. Namath was back for the 1972 season, leading the team to a respectable 7-7. After another disappointing season in 1973, coach Weeb Ewbank retired. The Jets went through three coaches for the next three seasons. After a late-season surge to finish 7-7 in 1974, the Jets finished 3-11 each year until 1977. Namath left the Jets after the 1976 season, playing one year with the Los Angeles Rams before retiring. Walt Michaels was hired for the 1977 season and stayed with the team for six years.
The Jets were rejeuvenated for the 1978 season, with quarterback Matt Robinson throwing for 2000 yards and the team finishing 8-8. Richard Todd took over under center for the 1979 season and did even better, but the Jets again finished 8-8. Todd imploded with a 30-interception season in 1980 and the team went down with him, finishing 4-12 and last in the AFC East. One of the Jets' bright spots in the late 1970s was their defensive line. Mark Gastineau and Joe Klecko anchored the "New York Sack Exchange" and combined for more than 40 sacks by 1981.
That 1981 season was the Jets' first winning season since joining the NFL. Finishing 10-5-1, the team made the playoffs for the first time since 1969 on Richard Todd's 3231 yards passing and 25 touchdowns, most of them to Wesley Walker and Jerome Barkum. A late comeback in their first playoff game, against the Buffalo Bills, was stopped when Todd threw an interception deep in Bills territory in the final minute, and the Jets went home empty-handed.
In a strike-shortened 1982 season, the Jets finished 6-3 and upset the defending AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals in the first round of the playoffs, followed by another upset of the Oakland Raiders in the second round. In the AFC Championship against the rival Miami Dolphins, Richard Todd's reputation of throwing costly interceptions came back to haunt him: he threw three. The Dolphins won 14-0, and Walt Michaels took a job in the short-lived United States Football League.
Joe Walton was the new coach for the 1983 season, and he led the team to a 7-9 season. In 1984 they moved from Shea Stadium (where they were second fiddle to baseball's New York Mets) to the Meadowlands of East Rutherford, New Jersey (where they played second fiddle to the New York Giants). In addition to a new stadium, Ken O'Brien took over at quarterback; but the team stumbled to the same 7-9 record.
In 1985 O'Brien threw 25 touchdowns (seven to Mickey Shuler and five to Wesley Walker) and eight interceptions, and four different rushers combined for 18 touchdowns on the ground. The Jets made the playoffs with an 11-5 record, but were stunned in the first round by the cinderella New England Patriots.
The Jets looked to improve on that mark for the 1986 season, with the team winning 9 straight games to start the season at 10-1. Wesley Walker caught 12 touchdowns, with second-year player Al Toon catching 8. The team slid through December, losing five straight to finish 10-6. Pat Ryan was named the starting quarterback for the playoffs, and they defeated the Kansas City Chiefs handily in the first round. A late comeback by the Cleveland Browns in their divisional playoff matchup led to a double-overtime winning field goal by Mark Moseley that broke Jets' fans hearts.
In 1987 the Jets again stumbled through December, but this time they missed the playoffs with a 6-9 record. Gastineau shocked the team by retiring midway through the 1988 season, one in which the Jets finished 8-7-1, short of a playoff spot in the competitive AFC wild-card race. The team went into a tailspin in 1989, finishing 4-12 and causing the firing of coach Joe Walton.
Bruce Coslet, hired to lead the team for the 1990 season, let most of their stars from the 1980s go. Ken O'Brien was on the downside of his career, and the team finished 6-10. In 1991, with Brad Baxter having a career-high 11 touchdown receptions, the Jets improved to 8-8. They won a wild-card playoff spot by beating the Miami Dolphins on the final weekend of the season. In their opening-round playoff game, the Jets fell 17-10 to the Houston Oilers.
Browning Nagle took over O'Brien's starting QB job for the 1992 season, but the Jets disappointed fans again with a 4-12 finish. Tragedy struck the Jets in November when defensive lineman Dennis Byrd was paralyzed in a game against Kansas City. Remarkably, he walked again within two years.
With the Nagle experiment over, longtime Cincinnati Bengals QB Boomer Esiason joined the team for the 1993 season. A mid-season winning streak gave Jets fans hope, but they missed the playoffs at 8-8 with a loss to Houston in their final game. Coslet was fired as head coach and replaced by Pete Carroll.
Optimism was high for the 1994 season when the Jets started the season 6-5 and played Miami in late November. But in a game against the Miami Dolphins, quarterback Dan Marino fooled the Jets into thinking he would spike the ball to stop the clock, then threw the winning touchdown to Mark Ingram for an inprobable victory. The play came to be known as "The Fake Spike," and the Jets never recovered, finishing the season 6-10, last place in the AFC East. Carroll was fired after only one season, but his replacement Rich Kotite proved to be even worse.
During Kotite's two-year term in New York, the Jets won only four games: a 3-13 record in 1995, and 1-15 in 1996, in both cases the worst in the NFL. The draft picks the Jets received set the stage for a quick turnaround in the late 1990s. Wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson was picked #1 overall, and New England Patriots coach Bill Parcells abandoned that team to take the Jets' coaching job for the 1997 season.
The results were immediate. Neil O'Donnell, formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers, threw for 17 touchdowns in his only full year as the Jets' starting quarterback, and Adrian Murrell ran for 1000 yards. The Jets finished 9-7, but still out of the playoffs.
Parcells grabbed Patriots running back Curtis Martin and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Vinny Testaverde in time for the 1998 season, which turned out to be the most successful for the team since the 1960s. Both paid immediate dividends: Testaverde threw 29 touchdowns, Martin ran for 1287 yards and 8 touchdowns, while both Keyshawn Johnson and Wayne Chrebet had 1000 yards receiving. The Jets won 10 of their last 11 games and finished the season 12-4. Earning a first-round bye, the Jets survived a scare from the Jacksonville Jaguars in their divisional playoff game, winning 34-24. New York looked bound for the Super Bowl with a 10-0 lead in the third quarter of the AFC Championship against the Denver Broncos. Testaverde threw two late interceptions and Denver running back Terrell Davis burned the Jets for 167 yards and a touchdown, and the Broncos won 23-10.
The Jets' hopes for the 1999 season were dashed in their first game against the New England Patriots, when Testaverde injured his Achilles tendon. The Jets collapsed to an 8-8 record. Parcells resigned his coaching position in early 2000 after disagreements with owner Woody Johnson. His handpicked successor, Bill Belichick also resigned after one day on the job and ended up taking the job with the Patriots.
The team finally settled Al Groh to lead the team for the 2000 season. The Jets won 6 of their first 7 games, capped by the biggest comeback in Monday Night Football history against the Dolphins. Down 30-7 entering the fourth quarter, the Jets exploded for 30 points in the last 15 minutes, and John Hall kicked the winning field goal in overtime. It was the highlight of the season, but they only won 3 of their last 9 to finish at 9-7 and out of the playoffs. Groh resigned after his first season to coach the University of Virginia team.
Under new coach Herman Edwards, the Jets were streaky through the 2001 season in a highly competitive AFC East. The team managed to salvage a wild-card with a 53-yard game-winning field goal against the Oakland Raiders in the final minute, forcing a rematch with the Raiders in the opening playoff game. The results were different in the playoffs, with the Raiders cruising to a 38-24 win.
The AFC East proved to be even more competitive in 2002, with all four teams in the race well into December. Testaverde was benched early in the season with the team at 1-4, and replaced with Chad Pennington, who proved to be the spark the Jets needed. Pennington threw 22 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions, and a win over the Green Bay Packers in the final week gave them the AFC East title at 9-7. The Jets cruised through the opening playoff game with a 41-0 blowout of the Indianapolis Colts, but collapsed in the second half against the eventual AFC champion Raiders in the divisional playoff.
The Jets lost several players to free agency in the off-season (mostly to the Washington Redskins), and a pre-season injury to Pennington submarined the Jets in 2003. Testaverde, thought by many on the downside of his career, was forced to take over. Pennington came back midway through the season, but it was too late. The Jets finished 6-10.
Pennington was healthy again for the start of the 2004 season, and the Jets started the season 5-0 before losing 2 of their next 3. Despite struggling down the stretch, the Jets finished with a 10-6 record and earned a wild card berth. Herm Edwards' team faced the AFC West champion San Diego Chargers in the opening round, a team that featured Pro Bowlers Drew Brees, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Antonio Gates. In a classic bout which was a rematch of week 2 the Jets prevailed with a Doug Brien field goal in overtime. The game sent the Jets to the divisional round against the 15-1 Pittsburgh Steelers.
In the divisional round, the Jets hung tight with the heavily favored Steelers. While the offense struggled, producing only a field goal, a punt return and interception return kept the Jets in the game. With the score tied at 17-17 late in the fourth quarter, kicker Doug Brien lined up for a 47 yard field goal attempt that would have put the Jets up. It fell just short.
Brien was saved by an interception of Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on the next play, and soon lined up for a 43 yard attempt. This one sailed wide left, forcing the game into overtime. The Jets lost on a 33 yard field goal by Pittsburgh kicker Jeff Reed, as they fell just short yet again.
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The Jets lost on a 33 yard field goal by Pittsburgh kicker Jeff Reed, as they fell just short yet again. In spite of this, the movie has been digitally restored to an impressive standard of picture and sound quality. This one sailed wide left, forcing the game into overtime. The audio commentary on the movie's "Special Edition" DVD includes a claim that the original negative was destroyed in a fire. Brien was saved by an interception of Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on the next play, and soon lined up for a 43 yard attempt. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. It fell just short. Jean Hagen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. With the score tied at 17-17 late in the fourth quarter, kicker Doug Brien lined up for a 47 yard field goal attempt that would have put the Jets up. Kelly was also responsible for the Choreography. While the offense struggled, producing only a field goal, a punt return and interception return kept the Jets in the game. The film was directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. In the divisional round, the Jets hung tight with the heavily favored Steelers. Shooting began on June 18, 1951 and was completed on November 21, 1951. The game sent the Jets to the divisional round against the 15-1 Pittsburgh Steelers. This was done using three break dancers, a recreation of the original set and superimposing Kelly's face onto the dancer. In a classic bout which was a rematch of week 2 the Jets prevailed with a Doug Brien field goal in overtime. It has also been the subject of a 2005 advert for the new VW Golf GTI, where Kelly appears to be break dancing instead of doing his usual routine until he reaches a policeman standing by the car. Herm Edwards' team faced the AFC West champion San Diego Chargers in the opening round, a team that featured Pro Bowlers Drew Brees, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Antonio Gates. It has of course been parodied several times, notably by Morecambe and Wise and Paddington Bear. Despite struggling down the stretch, the Jets finished with a 10-6 record and earned a wild card berth. The dance routine in which Gene Kelly sings the title song while twirling an umbrella, splashing through puddles and generally getting soaked to the skin, is probably the most famous of all movie musical sequences. Pennington was healthy again for the start of the 2004 season, and the Jets started the season 5-0 before losing 2 of their next 3. The song "Make 'Em Laugh" uncomfortably resembles the Cole Porter song "Be a Clown." Comden and Green wrote the music and lyrics to the number "Moses Supposes.". The Jets finished 6-10. The film features a rendition of the 1929 song "Singin' in the Rain" by Arthur Freed (who also produced) & Nacio Herb Brown, along with other Freed and Brown tunes from the late 1920s and the 1930s. Pennington came back midway through the season, but it was too late. Meanwhile Lockwood falls in love with the overdub artist Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) and Lamont does everything possible to sabotage the romance. Testaverde, thought by many on the downside of his career, was forced to take over. After a terrible screen test, Lockwood and his partner Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor) decide to return to their roots and convince the studio to overdub Lamont's voice and turn The Dueling Cavalier into The Dancing Cavalier, a musical comedy. The Jets lost several players to free agency in the off-season (mostly to the Washington Redskins), and a pre-season injury to Pennington submarined the Jets in 2003. The production is beset with difficulties, not least Lina's inadvertently comical speaking voice. The Jets cruised through the opening playoff game with a 41-0 blowout of the Indianapolis Colts, but collapsed in the second half against the eventual AFC champion Raiders in the divisional playoff. After the smash-hit of the historical talking picture innovator, The Jazz Singer, Lockwood's studio decides to convert the current Lockwood/Lamont vehicle, The Dueling Cavalier, into a talkie. Pennington threw 22 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions, and a win over the Green Bay Packers in the final week gave them the AFC East title at 9-7. Lockwood barely tolerates his vapid leading lady, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who is convinced their screen romance is real. Testaverde was benched early in the season with the team at 1-4, and replaced with Chad Pennington, who proved to be the spark the Jets needed. Kelly plays Don Lockwood, a silent film star with humble roots. The AFC East proved to be even more competitive in 2002, with all four teams in the race well into December. Themes of certains arts being inferior to others, or the immortal if you seen one of them, you've seen them all (which is what Rossini also said about his operas) are today as vivid as ever. The results were different in the playoffs, with the Raiders cruising to a 38-24 win. The movie has an extraordinarily intelligent plot, which greatly contributes to the work being systematically classified as the best musical comedy ever. The team managed to salvage a wild-card with a 53-yard game-winning field goal against the Oakland Raiders in the final minute, forcing a rematch with the Raiders in the opening playoff game. Singin' in the Rain, a 1952 Gene Kelly musical film, chronicled Hollywood's transition from silent films to "talkies". Under new coach Herman Edwards, the Jets were streaky through the 2001 season in a highly competitive AFC East. In the lead in to Make 'em Laugh, O'Conner/Cosmo sarcastically references the tragic line "ridi pagliaccio" ("Laugh, clown") from I Pagliacci. Groh resigned after his first season to coach the University of Virginia team. Dora Bailey, the gushy gossip columnist is an uncredited role played by Madge Blake who was later famous for her role as Aunt Harriet on Batman. It was the highlight of the season, but they only won 3 of their last 9 to finish at 9-7 and out of the playoffs. Simpson also uses one of Freed's frequent expressions when he says that he "cannot quite visualize it and has to see it on film first", referring to the Broadway ballet sequence. Down 30-7 entering the fourth quarter, the Jets exploded for 30 points in the last 15 minutes, and John Hall kicked the winning field goal in overtime. F. The Jets won 6 of their first 7 games, capped by the biggest comeback in Monday Night Football history against the Dolphins. R. The team finally settled Al Groh to lead the team for the 2000 season. Simpson are a reference to Arthur Freed. His handpicked successor, Bill Belichick also resigned after one day on the job and ended up taking the job with the Patriots. F. Parcells resigned his coaching position in early 2000 after disagreements with owner Woody Johnson. The initials of the fictional Monumental Pictures' owner, R. The Jets collapsed to an 8-8 record. Surviving prints of the sequence feature Reynolds singing in her own voice. The Jets' hopes for the 1999 season were dashed in their first game against the New England Patriots, when Testaverde injured his Achilles tendon. One possible reason why the scene was cut is that it somewhat contradicts the initial scene where Debbie does not immediately identify Gene when he jumps into her car. Testaverde threw two late interceptions and Denver running back Terrell Davis burned the Jets for 167 yards and a touchdown, and the Broncos won 23-10. An additional performance of You Are My Lucky Star featuring Debbie Reynolds singing to a giant poster of Gene Kelly was cut from the final film and was not released to the public until the 1990s. New York looked bound for the Super Bowl with a 10-0 lead in the third quarter of the AFC Championship against the Denver Broncos. In the famous rain scene, Kelly is actually dancing in a weak solution of milk so that it would be picked up by the camera. Earning a first-round bye, the Jets survived a scare from the Jacksonville Jaguars in their divisional playoff game, winning 34-24. Had this been the truth, the on-stage reality would have been an exact mirror image of the movie itself. The Jets won 10 of their last 11 games and finished the season 12-4. Debbie certainly does not acknowledge anything like that during her extensive commentary on the Special Edition DVD and this appears incorrect to a careful listener too. Both paid immediate dividends: Testaverde threw 29 touchdowns, Martin ran for 1287 yards and 8 touchdowns, while both Keyshawn Johnson and Wayne Chrebet had 1000 yards receiving. This brings us to another legend, that Jean Hagen actually dubbed Debbie in the entire movie, since Debbie's Texas accent was judged too thick. Parcells grabbed Patriots running back Curtis Martin and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Vinny Testaverde in time for the 1998 season, which turned out to be the most successful for the team since the 1960s. It is certainly different from Debbie's talking voice. The Jets finished 9-7, but still out of the playoffs. However most sources give Betty Noyes as the proprietor of the "beautiful" singing voice, used in Would You and the final You Are My Lucky Star. Neil O'Donnell, formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers, threw for 17 touchdowns in his only full year as the Jets' starting quarterback, and Adrian Murrell ran for 1000 yards. She provided her own track for both talking and singing and Reynolds is actually miming to that. The results were immediate. In the scenes where Kathy (Debbie Reynolds) is seen over-dubbing Lena Lamont (Jean Hagen), it is actually Hagen's voice we hear. Wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson was picked #1 overall, and New England Patriots coach Bill Parcells abandoned that team to take the Jets' coaching job for the 1997 season. The draft picks the Jets received set the stage for a quick turnaround in the late 1990s. During Kotite's two-year term in New York, the Jets won only four games: a 3-13 record in 1995, and 1-15 in 1996, in both cases the worst in the NFL. Carroll was fired after only one season, but his replacement Rich Kotite proved to be even worse. The play came to be known as "The Fake Spike," and the Jets never recovered, finishing the season 6-10, last place in the AFC East. But in a game against the Miami Dolphins, quarterback Dan Marino fooled the Jets into thinking he would spike the ball to stop the clock, then threw the winning touchdown to Mark Ingram for an inprobable victory. Optimism was high for the 1994 season when the Jets started the season 6-5 and played Miami in late November. Coslet was fired as head coach and replaced by Pete Carroll. A mid-season winning streak gave Jets fans hope, but they missed the playoffs at 8-8 with a loss to Houston in their final game. With the Nagle experiment over, longtime Cincinnati Bengals QB Boomer Esiason joined the team for the 1993 season. Remarkably, he walked again within two years. Tragedy struck the Jets in November when defensive lineman Dennis Byrd was paralyzed in a game against Kansas City. Browning Nagle took over O'Brien's starting QB job for the 1992 season, but the Jets disappointed fans again with a 4-12 finish. In their opening-round playoff game, the Jets fell 17-10 to the Houston Oilers. They won a wild-card playoff spot by beating the Miami Dolphins on the final weekend of the season. In 1991, with Brad Baxter having a career-high 11 touchdown receptions, the Jets improved to 8-8. Ken O'Brien was on the downside of his career, and the team finished 6-10. Bruce Coslet, hired to lead the team for the 1990 season, let most of their stars from the 1980s go. The team went into a tailspin in 1989, finishing 4-12 and causing the firing of coach Joe Walton. Gastineau shocked the team by retiring midway through the 1988 season, one in which the Jets finished 8-7-1, short of a playoff spot in the competitive AFC wild-card race. In 1987 the Jets again stumbled through December, but this time they missed the playoffs with a 6-9 record. A late comeback by the Cleveland Browns in their divisional playoff matchup led to a double-overtime winning field goal by Mark Moseley that broke Jets' fans hearts. Pat Ryan was named the starting quarterback for the playoffs, and they defeated the Kansas City Chiefs handily in the first round. The team slid through December, losing five straight to finish 10-6. Wesley Walker caught 12 touchdowns, with second-year player Al Toon catching 8. The Jets looked to improve on that mark for the 1986 season, with the team winning 9 straight games to start the season at 10-1. The Jets made the playoffs with an 11-5 record, but were stunned in the first round by the cinderella New England Patriots. In 1985 O'Brien threw 25 touchdowns (seven to Mickey Shuler and five to Wesley Walker) and eight interceptions, and four different rushers combined for 18 touchdowns on the ground. In addition to a new stadium, Ken O'Brien took over at quarterback; but the team stumbled to the same 7-9 record. In 1984 they moved from Shea Stadium (where they were second fiddle to baseball's New York Mets) to the Meadowlands of East Rutherford, New Jersey (where they played second fiddle to the New York Giants). Joe Walton was the new coach for the 1983 season, and he led the team to a 7-9 season. The Dolphins won 14-0, and Walt Michaels took a job in the short-lived United States Football League. In a strike-shortened 1982 season, the Jets finished 6-3 and upset the defending AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals in the first round of the playoffs, followed by another upset of the Oakland Raiders in the second round. In the AFC Championship against the rival Miami Dolphins, Richard Todd's reputation of throwing costly interceptions came back to haunt him: he threw three. A late comeback in their first playoff game, against the Buffalo Bills, was stopped when Todd threw an interception deep in Bills territory in the final minute, and the Jets went home empty-handed. Finishing 10-5-1, the team made the playoffs for the first time since 1969 on Richard Todd's 3231 yards passing and 25 touchdowns, most of them to Wesley Walker and Jerome Barkum. That 1981 season was the Jets' first winning season since joining the NFL. Mark Gastineau and Joe Klecko anchored the "New York Sack Exchange" and combined for more than 40 sacks by 1981. One of the Jets' bright spots in the late 1970s was their defensive line. Todd imploded with a 30-interception season in 1980 and the team went down with him, finishing 4-12 and last in the AFC East. Richard Todd took over under center for the 1979 season and did even better, but the Jets again finished 8-8. The Jets were rejeuvenated for the 1978 season, with quarterback Matt Robinson throwing for 2000 yards and the team finishing 8-8. Namath left the Jets after the 1976 season, playing one year with the Los Angeles Rams before retiring. Walt Michaels was hired for the 1977 season and stayed with the team for six years. After a late-season surge to finish 7-7 in 1974, the Jets finished 3-11 each year until 1977. The Jets went through three coaches for the next three seasons. After another disappointing season in 1973, coach Weeb Ewbank retired. Namath was back for the 1972 season, leading the team to a respectable 7-7. Another injury to Namath before the 1971 season submarined the Jets that year as well, with Bob Davis and Al Woodall leading the team to a 6-8 record. In their first season after the merger, Joe Namath broke his wrist in October and had to sit out the rest of the year, with the Jets finishing 4-10. The Jets did not live up to expectations after the AFL and NFL merged in 1970. The Jets' first game in the NFL was also the first-ever Monday Night Football game, a 31-21 loss to the Cleveland Browns. This victory showed that the AFL was capable of competing with the NFL. In the week leading up to Super Bowl III, Namath famously "guaranteed" a victory and the Jets went on to complete one of the greatest upsets in football history by defeating the Colts 16-7. At the time, the AFL was considered to be inferior to the NFL and most people considered the Jets to be heavy underdogs. They were pitted against the "best team in the NFL", the Baltimore Colts. Under Namath's guidance, the Jets rose to the top of the AFL and in 1969 represented that league in the Super Bowl. In 1965, the Jets signed Alabama quarterback Joe Namath after the NFL passed on Namath in the amateur draft. When a group including Sonny Werblin bought the team from Harry Wismer in 1963, the team was re-named the New York Jets. The Jets began as the Titans of New York, a charter member of the American Football League in 1960. The team is also being courted by its current landlord, the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority (NJSEA), to remain in the Meadowlands as part of plans to construct a new Giants Stadium. It would also be the site of Super Bowl XLIV. The NYSCC West Side Stadium project in NYC, still under consideration, would expected to be the home of the Jets by 2010 if built. The New York Jets are a National Football League team that plays its home games in East Rutherford, New Jersey, but is based on Long Island. Johnny Johnson. Johnny "Lam" Jones. Jeff Lageman. Dennis Byrd. Pat Leahy. Aaron Glenn. Marvin Jones. Kyle Clifton. Wesley Walker. Ken O'Brien. Lance Mehl. Freeman McNeil. Sonny Werblin. Jim Turner. Al Toon. Vinny Testaverde. Bob Talamini. Matt Snell. Mickey Shuler. George Sauer. Paul Rochester. Gerry Philbin. Babe Parilli. Adrian Murrell. Erik McMillan. Wahoo McDaniel. Bill Mathis. Ronnie Lott. Mo Lewis. Joe Klecko. Keyshawn Johnson. Winston Hill. James Hasty. Larry Grantham. Mark Gastineau. Boomer Esiason. Verlon Biggs. Randy Beverly. 73 Joe Klecko. 13 Don Maynard. 12 Joe Namath. Erik Coleman. John McGraw. Shaun Ellis. Justin McCareins. Eric Barton. Jonathan Vilma. Chad Pennington. Laveranues Coles. Kevin Mawae. Curtis Martin. Jay Fiedler. Wayne Chrebet. John Abraham. Ronnie Lott. John Riggins. Joe Namath. Don Maynard. Weeb Ewbank. |